Packages and shipping containers are generally designed and constructed in accordance with the characteristics of the product or material contained therein. Uncured rubber products and other materials having inherent cold flow characteristics require packages and shipping containers having sufficient strength and/or other features to address the problem of a product which is likely to undergo significant deformation and change of shape during shipping, handling, and subsequent storage. U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,072 to Muskopf et al. discloses a multi-cell paperboard container particularly adapted for shipping and storing material having cold-flow characteristics, such as synthetic rubber, which exerts great pressure against the cell walls. The coextensive facing walls of the independent cells are secured together by a reenforcing sheet coextensive with and bonded by adhesive to such facing walls. This arrangement serves to strengthen the cells, to enhance bulge resistance, and to distribute pressure uniformly along the facing walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,968,397 to Cantrell, Sr. discloses a shipping container for bales of unvulcanized rubber products. A tubular bale holder is constructed to contain a plurality of bales, each bale holder having a cross-sectional configuration greater than the cross-sectional configuration of the bales to be contained therein. When the bales become distorted during storage or handling, they snuggly fit within and abut against the walls of the bale holders.
In addition to having sufficient strength or some other feature to allow for deformation, packages and shipping containers for uncured rubber should desirably reduce or eliminate the introduction of contaminants therein. Contamination of the uncured rubber degrades the quality of products subsequently formed therefrom. In particular, prior art multi-cell shipping containers for uncured rubber suffer from the introduction of dust into the rubber, notably dust from the rough edges of the material from which the cell units are constructed. As described in above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,072, cell units are typically formed from corrugated board, fiberboard, or paperboard. Such a cell is illustrated in FIG. 1. Cell unit 1 includes an upper edge 2 and a lower edge 3. Since the board from which the cell unit is formed is typically die cut, edges 2 and 3 are rough and uneven. Any sliding contact with such edges by the product contained within the cell or with other portions of the container can produce rips and tears in a bag or container housing the product and can also generate fine dust particles from abrasion. The introduction of these dust particles, as noted, degrades the quality of the rubber.
Although the strength of a cell unit and the reduction of the introduction of contaminants such as dust is described above in terms of a shipping container for uncured rubber products, such considerations are important in many situations. for instance, the shipping of food such as fruit can require a container having strength and which advantageously includes an arrangement for reducing the introduction of contaminants thereto.